• The Unlucky Ones by Stacey Marie Brown
5
The Unlucky Ones Book Cover The Unlucky Ones
Stacey Marie Brown
New Adult, Contemporary Romance
Independently published
March 10, 2019
Kindle, Paperback
360

Misfortune. Bad luck. Heartache. Devon Thorpe is no stranger to any of them.After devastating news, Devon’s life becomes a prison of responsibility, heartbreak, and hardship. All her dreams to leave her small town vanish. A prisoner of circumstance.At her breaking point, Devon has a reckless moment in a diner bathroom with a blue-eyed sexy stranger. A single encounter with him leaves a deep mark on Devon, giving her only a memory of his touch when nights are lonely, and her life becomes too much to take.Years later a terrifying incident takes her and her family to Albuquerque NM, where she finds work as a server at a bar to support her mother.Tattooed, moody, rough, brown-eyed, sexy as hell, Lincoln Kessler, the mysterious owner of the saloon, instantly draws Devon in. She can’t let go of the feeling there is some strange connection between them.But the more Lincoln tries to push her away, the more determined she is to figure out the enigmatic man. One fiery kiss and Devon realizes she should have stayed away because when their worlds collide and tragedy strikes, she recognizes they are not each other’s savior, but each other’s misfortune.A tear-jerking, novel about ill-fated love, heartache, loss, and finding your way through the pain.And a lot of bad luck.*An NA/Adult Sexy and heartbreaking Contemporary Romance. Deeply emotional with sensitive subject matter of dealing with a crippling mind disease.

Empathy – vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another…

Devon Thorpe has to grow up fast after her father is killed in the line of duty and her mother develops an aggressive form of Alzheimer’s.  It seems to her that she went from being a happy, carefree teenager to an exhausted and resigned old lady, who shoulders the weight of the world, in the matter of months.  It doesn’t help that her older sister is a flitty and irresponsible unwed mother and dumps all of the responsibility for their mother and her toddler on Devon as a way to avoid dealing with life’s problems. Just when Devon thinks she can’t take anymore, her cheating boyfriend sends her over the edge, prompting her to initiate a spontaneous fling with a sexy stranger, Lincoln Kessler, a man contending with his own demons.  They have no way of knowing how fate will use this encounter and ultimately turn their luck around.

The Unlucky Ones solidified my opinion that Stacey is an empathetic writer.  You don’t just read her stories you experience them.  I’m not just talking about a few smiles and sad feelings here and there. In a story that deals with emotionally difficult subjects like the tragic loss of a parent, coping with quickly progressing Alzheimer’s in another, and the balance between being the responsible daughter and putting aside all your dreams and needs, the intense emotional highs had me soaring and the crushing frustrations and defeats literally had me in tears.

If you are unfamiliar with Stacey’s writing, she has earned a following with her fantasy novels; the Darkness Series, The Collector’s Series, and Lightness Saga.  These books are high intensity/ action packed with a huge cast of intriguing (and of course sexy) characters.  These are fabulous books but it was her jump into the world of contemporary romance with the Blinded Love Series that started to showcase her ability to make her reader feel so intensely.  With The Unlucky Ones she has definitely perfected the skill of taking her reader on an emotional roller coaster ride.